Coaching through Co-Teaching

Co-teaching can be an effective way to accelerate teachers’ skill-building, giving in-the-moment support for both the teacher and her students.
 
Even though Savannah had strong content knowledge and knew many effective instructional strategies, her classroom management skills were still a bit shaky. Her students required more structure and consistency than she was providing.
 
Savannah needed someone to reinforce the idea that her students were capable of meeting expectations, and she needed to feel that she was capable of providing that leadership for the class. Her self-efficacy was low because she saw the difference between how students behaved with her and their behavior in other classes.
 
Savannah’s coach, Rebecca, asked how Savannah felt about co-teaching. Would it be okay if she stepped in to offer support while Savannah was teaching a lesson? They worried that doing this might reinforce students’ perception of Savannah as a novice. They knew they needed to guard against that. But having Rebecca model expectations and responses in the moment seemed worth the risk. They planned carefully so they wouldn’t de-center Savannah’s authority.
 
As Savannah and Rebecca looked through plans for upcoming lessons, they thought about how to shift some of the responsibility for both instruction and management so that it was shared. Savannah would lead on instruction for some parts of the lesson and Rebecca for other parts. Whichever teacher wasn’t leading instruction would be actively managing expectations for behavior and participation.
 
As they carried out this plan over the next few days, Savannah started to duplicate Rebecca’s actions.  When they sat down to talk about it, Savannah said she felt so much more confident! And students were paying more attention to her expectations. During subsequent lessons when Savannah was teaching on her own, the results were sustained. “I can feel the difference when I’m teaching,” Savannah said.
 
Rebecca affirmed the change: “You had clear directions and held students accountable,” she said. “I can see a big difference.”
 
As this example illustrates, co-teaching can help teachers make connections between teacher actions and students’ choices, building skill in both instruction and classroom management.
 
This week, you might want to take a look at:

https://choiceliteracy.com/article/pick-a-poem/
 
 
Adding movement to early reading:
 
https://www.edutopia.org/article/squats-lunges-and-phonemes
 
 
Support students’ persistence in problem-solving:
 
https://www.teachingchannel.com/free-videos/
 
 
Bringing laughter into the classroom:
 
https://www.learnersedge.com/blog/incorporating-laughter-into-the-classroom
 
 
When to stop reading a read-aloud:
 
https://choiceliteracy.com/article/read-aloud-gone-awry/
 
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
 
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For more coaching ideas, check out my book, Differentiated Mentoring & Coaching in Education: From Preservice Teacher to Expert Practitioner is available from Teachers College Press!  I’m so excited to share it with you! You can use the code: APR2023 for 15% off plus FREE SHIPPING. Click  here  and I’ll email you the free Book Group Study Guide that includes questions, prompts, and activities you can use as you share the book with colleagues.  I hope you’ll love this book as much as I loved making it for you!
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For National Poetry Month, spark students’ love of poetry: